I'd be grateful for advice - or better still, other's experience - on the question of repairs to a common roof.An expatriate neighbour of mine suffered quite a bit of damage in the recent L'aquila earthquake.
On magazines, you might like to take a look at Casantica. Their website is at:- http://www.casantica.net/ , but I haven't dug into that, preferring the mag itself. Its in Italian, but gives you a range of ideas that depart from the steel / granite options, and of course there are plenty of visuals. They did a special edition on kitchens a wee while ago, and I think you can buy that as a back number. The magazine also has a very comprehensive list of sources in the back, breaking down into just about any category that you might need (although the vast majority are in the northern half of Italy).Others have noted the markets in Arezzo + Lucca. I have not used either, but I've tended to find the antique markets very variable, although I did buy quite a bit of stuff down in Lecce where I found prices less than half of those in Abruzzo (where I live).Online, you might like to have a look at either:- http://www.arsantik.com/ or http://www.anticoantico.com/. Both are online windows (no pun intended) for antique shops all over Italy, though both seem to have quite a lot from Reggio Emilia + Lombardy in particular. The latter tends to have less in the way of price information, though the dealers are usually amenable to giving more info over the phone. The former site has a link to a place in Milan (name is something like mano di mano) which has reasonable offers on antique furntire by the room.Avoiding IKEA-type places, I have been pretty surprised that the cost of antique furniture comes out as same or less than repro furniture (although I haven't searched widely for repro or modern furniture).Happy hunting!
Try these:-Barclays Bank Italy Client Service Email: clientservice@barclays.it Client Service Ph.: +390240378205 (option 4) The telno is for their office in Milan, which appears to cover their mortgage work in Italy.I have found the e-mail replies are slow, but they accept / reply in English (can't imagine the bank in Britain working in a foreign language, so maybe its mean to complain about their speed of response).Hope this helps.
2,200 Euros does seem a bit steep; we have had a good system installed for a decent-sized house for quite a bit less. Its a while since I have been active on this site, and its changed; otherwise I'd send you a more detailed personal message, but can't see how that works now.
Hope I'm not infringeing any copyright, but thought it worth posting a section of the academic article abstract that SteveW has posted the link to, at the start of this thread:- "Thirty kilograms of freshly produced pellets from two different manufacturers were stored for 16 days in airtight containers at 26°C with different relative humidities. CO concentrations between 3100 and 4700 ppm were measured in all containers. There were no notable differences between the wood pellet products or storage at different humidities. Emission of CO from wood pellets has already been described, but fatal accidents have previously been reported only in association with pellet transport on cargo ships or storage in silos. It is therefore a new finding that fatal accidents may also occur in the wood pellet storerooms of private households. We show that significant CO concentrations can build up even when these rooms are ventilated in accordance with the regulations" I was amazed that there's a problem with just 30kg - that's only a couple of sacks! There are other variables there which I would wonder about - can't imagine storing pellets at 26°C, but we've never bothered about ventilating the cantina....... All-in-all, worrying enough for me to warrant more investigation.
Its been a while since I've followed the forum, but this is an interesting topic to welcome me back....! In my area (Abruzzo), there is definitely the trend that Angie & Robert flag, with most (not all) younger Italians opting out of agriculture. However, what keeps much of our local agriculture going is an "influx" of Romanian and Albanian families. (I use "influx" advisedly; 5 or 6 families might not be very much, but in a small village they make a noticeable contribution.) What surprises me is a complete absence (in our area) of any drift back to the countryside by tech-savvy Italians escaping the city. Admittedly, internet speeds / reliability aren't fantastic, but telecommuting is feasible. As far as I can see, the difference in housing prices between the larger cities and smaller villages must be big enough to make this viable, but it is also a lifestyle change..... That is increasingly attractive in the UK, France and northern Europe, but doesn't seem to have taken root in Italy - or at least not my area.
Margaret, I don't recall exactly - either February 2006 or February 2007. The rules may have changed, but having acquired residency in late 2008, this might have sidestepped any problems - I don't remember being asked for the residency card when we replaced the car. I accept the rules might have changed - it seems to keep the Italian administrative system in business (and I say that as a civil servant myself), but I'd also maintain that one has to do a lot of digging before getting to the actual administrative or policy reality, irrespective of what locals, businesses, or even Italymag contributors say....... A bit frustrating, but then the laid-back attitude is part of the whole attraction.......
There are a few other threads discussing this subject, if you use the search function. However, irrespective of Pamela's comment, I owned a car a couple of years before acquiring residency status, and the ownership was registered with the government equivalent of the UK Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency. I speculated on the other thread mentioned that this may have been eased by buying in a large city garage. I found that opinions on whether one can actually buy a car or not without having residency status varied from "no problem" to "impossible", the only reply missing being "I don't know but will check it out".
Stefanaccio's comment above on car ownership for those without either Italian citizenship or residency doesn't ring true with my own experience. Before getting residency, we bought a car without any problem, the garage where we bought it handling the registration of the change of ownership. Admittedly, that was in the nearest big town, and I suspect that a garage which hasn't encountered foreigners wanting a car, or private vendor, might not know the regulations, or how to make them work. However, it is inaccurate to say that a non-resident is not allowed to buy a car in Italy. In passing, Caerus, you might like to know that there are Summer flights from Pescara to Toronto. Only weekly, but if I remember correctly, they run from the end of May to the start of September. Good luck!
We have used Abruzzesi tradesmen working with lime using traditional techniques who were based near Teramo. This includes builders, plasterers and painters. I would be happy to provide both their details (and recommendation) if anyone is interested. PM me if so.
Hi, Welcome to the site. You should take a look at the predecessor to this site, (http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/), which had quite a detailed exchange about the pros and cons of sand-blasting. Much of that discussion was about interior plasterwork, but issues about the materials below being damaged by sand-blasting may be common to your plans. Also, a lot in there on insulation. I thought the old site had a lot more in the way of building techno info than this one, but then this site hasn't been running nearly as long....
Comments posted
On magazines, you might like to take a look at Casantica. Their website is at:- http://www.casantica.net/ , but I haven't dug into that, preferring the mag itself. Its in Italian, but gives you a range of ideas that depart from the steel / granite options, and of course there are plenty of visuals. They did a special edition on kitchens a wee while ago, and I think you can buy that as a back number. The magazine also has a very comprehensive list of sources in the back, breaking down into just about any category that you might need (although the vast majority are in the northern half of Italy).Others have noted the markets in Arezzo + Lucca. I have not used either, but I've tended to find the antique markets very variable, although I did buy quite a bit of stuff down in Lecce where I found prices less than half of those in Abruzzo (where I live).Online, you might like to have a look at either:- http://www.arsantik.com/ or http://www.anticoantico.com/. Both are online windows (no pun intended) for antique shops all over Italy, though both seem to have quite a lot from Reggio Emilia + Lombardy in particular. The latter tends to have less in the way of price information, though the dealers are usually amenable to giving more info over the phone. The former site has a link to a place in Milan (name is something like mano di mano) which has reasonable offers on antique furntire by the room.Avoiding IKEA-type places, I have been pretty surprised that the cost of antique furniture comes out as same or less than repro furniture (although I haven't searched widely for repro or modern furniture).Happy hunting!
Try these:-Barclays Bank Italy Client Service Email: clientservice@barclays.it Client Service Ph.: +390240378205 (option 4) The telno is for their office in Milan, which appears to cover their mortgage work in Italy.I have found the e-mail replies are slow, but they accept / reply in English (can't imagine the bank in Britain working in a foreign language, so maybe its mean to complain about their speed of response).Hope this helps.
2,200 Euros does seem a bit steep; we have had a good system installed for a decent-sized house for quite a bit less. Its a while since I have been active on this site, and its changed; otherwise I'd send you a more detailed personal message, but can't see how that works now.
Hope I'm not infringeing any copyright, but thought it worth posting a section of the academic article abstract that SteveW has posted the link to, at the start of this thread:- "Thirty kilograms of freshly produced pellets from two different manufacturers were stored for 16 days in airtight containers at 26°C with different relative humidities. CO concentrations between 3100 and 4700 ppm were measured in all containers. There were no notable differences between the wood pellet products or storage at different humidities. Emission of CO from wood pellets has already been described, but fatal accidents have previously been reported only in association with pellet transport on cargo ships or storage in silos. It is therefore a new finding that fatal accidents may also occur in the wood pellet storerooms of private households. We show that significant CO concentrations can build up even when these rooms are ventilated in accordance with the regulations" I was amazed that there's a problem with just 30kg - that's only a couple of sacks! There are other variables there which I would wonder about - can't imagine storing pellets at 26°C, but we've never bothered about ventilating the cantina....... All-in-all, worrying enough for me to warrant more investigation.
Its been a while since I've followed the forum, but this is an interesting topic to welcome me back....! In my area (Abruzzo), there is definitely the trend that Angie & Robert flag, with most (not all) younger Italians opting out of agriculture. However, what keeps much of our local agriculture going is an "influx" of Romanian and Albanian families. (I use "influx" advisedly; 5 or 6 families might not be very much, but in a small village they make a noticeable contribution.) What surprises me is a complete absence (in our area) of any drift back to the countryside by tech-savvy Italians escaping the city. Admittedly, internet speeds / reliability aren't fantastic, but telecommuting is feasible. As far as I can see, the difference in housing prices between the larger cities and smaller villages must be big enough to make this viable, but it is also a lifestyle change..... That is increasingly attractive in the UK, France and northern Europe, but doesn't seem to have taken root in Italy - or at least not my area.
Margaret, I don't recall exactly - either February 2006 or February 2007. The rules may have changed, but having acquired residency in late 2008, this might have sidestepped any problems - I don't remember being asked for the residency card when we replaced the car. I accept the rules might have changed - it seems to keep the Italian administrative system in business (and I say that as a civil servant myself), but I'd also maintain that one has to do a lot of digging before getting to the actual administrative or policy reality, irrespective of what locals, businesses, or even Italymag contributors say....... A bit frustrating, but then the laid-back attitude is part of the whole attraction.......
There are a few other threads discussing this subject, if you use the search function. However, irrespective of Pamela's comment, I owned a car a couple of years before acquiring residency status, and the ownership was registered with the government equivalent of the UK Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency. I speculated on the other thread mentioned that this may have been eased by buying in a large city garage. I found that opinions on whether one can actually buy a car or not without having residency status varied from "no problem" to "impossible", the only reply missing being "I don't know but will check it out".
Stefanaccio's comment above on car ownership for those without either Italian citizenship or residency doesn't ring true with my own experience. Before getting residency, we bought a car without any problem, the garage where we bought it handling the registration of the change of ownership. Admittedly, that was in the nearest big town, and I suspect that a garage which hasn't encountered foreigners wanting a car, or private vendor, might not know the regulations, or how to make them work. However, it is inaccurate to say that a non-resident is not allowed to buy a car in Italy. In passing, Caerus, you might like to know that there are Summer flights from Pescara to Toronto. Only weekly, but if I remember correctly, they run from the end of May to the start of September. Good luck!
We have used Abruzzesi tradesmen working with lime using traditional techniques who were based near Teramo. This includes builders, plasterers and painters. I would be happy to provide both their details (and recommendation) if anyone is interested. PM me if so.
Hi, Welcome to the site. You should take a look at the predecessor to this site, (http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/), which had quite a detailed exchange about the pros and cons of sand-blasting. Much of that discussion was about interior plasterwork, but issues about the materials below being damaged by sand-blasting may be common to your plans. Also, a lot in there on insulation. I thought the old site had a lot more in the way of building techno info than this one, but then this site hasn't been running nearly as long....